▪ I. † skerry, n.1 Obs.
Also 6 skerrey.
[Of obscure origin.]
(See later quots.)
| 1540–1 Will W. Coney (Somerset Ho.), A little boote otherwyse callyd a Skerrey. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 531 Little punts or boats that will carry but two apeece (which they call Skerries). 1851 Sternberg Northampt. Dial., Skerry, a small boat, formerly much used in the fenny districts. 1861 Smiles Engineers I. 25 Islands..to which the Croyland men went in their boats or skerries to milk the cows—the boats being so small that they could carry only two men and their milk-pails. |
▪ II. skerry, n.2
(ˈskɛrɪ)
[Orkney dial., f. ON. sker (Norw. skjer, Sw. skär, Da. skær), whence also Gael. sgeir.]
A rugged insulated sea-rock or stretch of rocks, covered by the sea at high water or in stormy weather; a reef.
1. a. With reference to Scotland, esp. those parts of it formerly under Scandinavian influence.
| 1612 Sc. Acts, Jas. VI (1816) IV. 481/1 Ony landis, annuel⁓rentis, Iles, skerreis, holmes..within the erldome of Orknay. 1654 Blaeu Atlas Scotia 135 Minimæ partes vocantur Scopuli (vulgari apud Incolas Orcadum nomine Skerries). a 1688 T. Wallace Descr. Orkney (1693) 93. 1795 Statist. Acc. Scot. XV. 300 Near this Pentland Skerry, there are two or three other skerries or rocks, on which there is not nourishment for any tame living creature. 1805 Barry Orkney Islands 18 There are several [islands] which are overflowed at high water, and have scarcely any soil... These..are called Skerries. 1823 Scoresby Jrnl. Whale Fish. 373 The islands, or skerries, which..skirt the forbidding coast on the western side of the Hebrides. 1875 W. M{supc}Ilwraith Guide Wigtownshire 62 The rocks stretch seaward in rugged ledges and skerries. |
b. In general use.
| 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. v. (1856) 40 Rocky islets known to the Danes as ‘skerries’. 1870 Morris Earthly Par. II. iii. 512, I see his black bows strike The hidden skerry. 1885 S. Tromholt Aurora Borealis II. 251 Between islands and tiny skerries, the steamer speeds on. |
2. Without article.
| 1847 H. Miller Test. Rocks i. (1857) 19 Rock and skerry are brown with sea-weed. a 1856 ― Rambles Geologist in Cruise of ‘Betsey’ (1858) 273 The tempest weltered round reef and skerry. 1896 Kipling Seven Seas, Coastwise L. i, From reef and rock and skerry—over headland, ness, and voe. |
▪ III. skerry, a. and n.3
(ˈskɛrɪ)
[Of uncertain origin.]
1. adj. Of the nature of shale; shaly, slaty.
| a 1800 Pegge Suppl. Grose, Skerry, shaley... Derb. Spoken of coals. 1829 Glover's Hist. Derby I. 59 Brown skerry stone. 1876 Page Adv. Text-bk. Geol. xvi. 296 Grey shale and thin skerry laminae. |
2. n. Earth or stone of a shaly nature.
| 1844 H. Hutchinson Pract. Drainage Land 140 From this depth..was nine feet to the water, then one foot of yellow skerry and sand. 1881 Leicester Gloss. 240 Skerry, the thin, grey, partially laminated bands occurring in the red brick earth near Bosworth. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-m. 224 Skerries, greenish-white micaceous sandstone. |
▪ IV. skerry
Sc. variant of scarry a.1
| a 1830 Thomas Rymer x. in Child Ballads I. 325/1 It's dont ye see yon broad broad way, That leadeth down by yon skerry fell? |